Once upon a Time Monday, Jun 25 2007

Miss Victoria Mayhew commented:
Here in Vintesse, as in all Aristasia Pura, we do constantly strive for the higher realm. I think here we are closer to the realm of the Idea - logos, if some of the ladies here prefer that term - than the inhabitants of Telluria are. Having lived for a little while in Telluria
with my cousin Sarah, I cannot help but make that observation. However, I fear that we fortunate maids of Aristasia are still trapped in the cave, watching shadows dance on the wall.

In the Golden Age, we were in the realm of the Ideal, were we not? Then came the Silver Age of Heroines; what we might think of as “once upon a time.” Some parts of the Far  East are surely still thus, although I have never travelled that far and know of no maids from those reaches. My theory is that Aristasia Pura corresponds to the Age of Bronze, when things are still sound although not quite heroic…but Telluria is in the Age of Lead, and is fundamentally shaky and corrupt, in much need of a cleansing and a tearing down for rebuilding. The Wheel turns; all things pass, even the horrors of the Pit.

Miss Alice Trent answered:
Thank you, Miss Mayhew, for your very pertinent comments - as you suggest, phrases like “once upon a time” indicate that a story (normally a traditional fairy tale) is set in “that time”, or “nowever” - in the time that transcends time, but which also may for us be represented by earlier and purer Ages.

Aristasia’s Iron Age is no doubt nearer to the Bronze Age in Telluria, though such things as the development of individualism indicate that it is indeed an Iron Age. Maids in the East do have a mentality closer to that of earlier Ages and are less affected by the changes of the Iron Age which are most typified in the West, which, being the Land of the Setting Sun, will always tend to come into its own in the last Age.

Where Eastern people accept the sovereignty of the West, it is not because they believe that the ways of the West are inherently superior, but because they acknowledge that the time of the West has come and that its sovereignty is a symbolic necessity for this age - a concession more easily granted since the West in Aristasia makes no attempt to interfere with the ways of the East.

No Responses »

 

Good Fences, Good Neighbors Thursday, Jun 21 2007

Miss Amy recommends Kadoria:
The other day, after a full morning, I enjoyed the simple luxury of reading a real magazine from Kadoria (or rather, the Tellurian Kadoria, the 1940s). If you’ve never had the pleasure of reading a real magazine, I would strongly encourage you
to make this effort. For in real magazines, one finds affirmation of goodness, order, beauty, and truth, affirmation and acceptance of these things as normal, and as virtues one should aspire to. After copying down a recipe or two and noting the latest in fashions and hairstyles, I read a touching letter to the editor. A reader had written to discuss how good fences make good neighbors: because it is over a fence that a borrowed cup of sugar passes, and it is over a fence that two friends talk about Little Suzie’s latest violin recital or how best to soothe the new baby’s colic. And it is over a fence that appreciative comments are made on each other’s gardens, and hints are shared about how to economize and make a comfortable home on a family’s limited income. If you have a deep longing for real neighbors, just as I do, I invite you to move to Kadoria and buy a little tract home right next to the one we are going to purchase. There is a perfect white picket fence that separates our houses. You can comment on my tulips just about to bloom, and I’ll compliment your lovely jonquils. When the little ones are asleep, we’ll chat about everything imaginable: how to keep our homes in spit-spot shape the most efficient way possible (have you heard about that astonishing machine that actually washes dishes!), and how to cope with the occasional tantrums of those toddlers we each have. Here, where we will live, in a loving neighborhood that respects goodness and honesty and cleanliness, life is quite lovely; quite lovely indeed. And remember, new neighbor of mine, that a well-run home does not end at the front and back doors; it shines in the face of the clean, well-mannered child living therein, and it blossoms in the heart of that Brunette Mummy, eager to return to the sanctuary of her home after working so hard at the office.

No Responses »

 

Matriarchy, Patriarchy and Femininity Friday, Jun 1 2007

A typical comment of the modern mind upon ‘matriarchy’ is to say that it must only have been patriarchy the other way round, But such is very far from being the case… Femininity has very definite characteristics that are a part of the metaphysical nature of things. To say, for example, that if men are considered the active, forceful, even violent sex under patriarchy, women must have been considered the same way under matriarchy, is founded on a complete misunderstanding of the nature of femininity, both in its metaphysical essence and in its biological reflection on earth.

In a ‘matriarchal’ or we had rather say, a feminine society, women as the leading and most revered sex, are revered precisely for their feminine qualities, which do not change whether in feminine or masculine societies. They are always the ‘passive’ sex in the sense of being the one less oriented to outward activity, and in this, in feminine societies, they are assimilated to the Principle itself, which causes motion without itself moving. This is not to say that women did nothing, either in feminine or patriarchal societies, but that symbolically the qualities of serenity, peace and contemplation are considered superior to dynamic outward activity, Or rather, the latter is said to depend upon and be always subordinate to the former.

This, indeed, is understood even in patriarchal societies, where, for example, in the Hindu Tantrik tradition the male principle (the god or deva) is considered to be the superior and therefore the serene, unmoving principle, while his female counterpart (or shakti) is his outward activity or energy. This is rather curious according to most later patriarchal thinking about the nature of femininity, just as it was to matriarchal thinking. But the reversal was necessary in order to preserve metaphysical truth and patriarchal doctrine at the same time. In Tibet, which remains closer to the original matriarchal tradition (polyandry was until recently practised there), the position is reversed — that is to say, normal — and the serene Deity is female while her shakti or outward energy is male. Similarly, in Tibet, in the case of the complementary principles of Wisdom and Method — representing the Essential or Spiritual principle and the substantial or material respectively —Wisdom is female and Method male.

The Hindu Tantrik tradition notwithstanding, in general patriarchy has not attempted to alter the relative qualities of masculinity and femininity. Rather it has re-valued them in metaphysical terms, associating feminine serenity with the passivity of matter and male activity with the relatively ‘active’ power of the in-forming Spirit or Essence. And, insofar as patriarchy is a legitimate tradition, albeit one belonging purely to the inferior state of the Iron Age, this can be accepted as one of the permissible permutations of the expression of Truth.

Nonetheless, throughout the patriarchal period, the feminine continually shines through in its true glory, despite all ideological opposition. From the great Goddesses of various traditions, who so often overwhelm their appointed Gods in the hearts and souls of the people, to the Blessed Virgin Mary who rapidly adopts the titles of supreme Deity — Seat of Wisdom, Rose of the World, Queen of Heaven.

From The Feminine Universe

No Responses »

 

History and Myth Monday, May 28 2007

A question arose about “mythic history”, those people and events in a country’s history which take
on a mythic significance, in particular the storms which prevented  the Spanish Armada’s attack on Britain, and the Divine Wind which scattered the enemies of Japan.  Aristasia’s mythic history also turns on the repulsion of an invader by Divine intervention - in our case the defeat of the Outlander by the Sun-Daughter Sai Rayanna.

Lhi Raya Chancandre Aquitaine commented:

The distinction between “myth”  and “history” is a very recent one. It really only became fully formed during the 19th century.

The modern “historical consciousness” takes as its axiom that history is a set of “brute facts” that simply “happened”: any attempt of ours to read a hugher or spiritual meaning into them is merely a product of ignorance and superstition.

The traditional consciousness, on the contrary has always valued history for what it means. In particular the history of a nation or a people is its validating “story”.

The underlying point at issue is: do things happen at random or is there a meaning or pattern underlying them? The modern “scientistic” approach is committed to the hypothesis of randomness. The rest of humanity has always believed that events have meaning and are the outworking of eternal themes in the medium of time.

The modern practice of “debunking” traditional mythic-history in the light of supposed “superior knowledge” which is often purely hypothetical or based on circular arguments (”this history is untrue because it postulates miracles and we know miracles don’t happen” - which simply means “they believe in miracles, we don’t; and we know they are wrong because we know we are right”) is simply an attack by the “accidentalist” school upon traditional thought. Such attacks often shows great ferocity and emotionalism because their perpetrators are often very deeply and ideologically opposed to a universe with meaning and symbolism.

Aristasians, like all traditional people, draw no distinction between “mythic history” and “factual history” since historical events are merely the outworking of eternal themes in time. If the telling of the story sometimes errs on the side of conveying the fundamental meaning at the expense of the brute fact, that is because the underlying meaning is the more important truth about history. The raw facts are relatively unimportant.

One might even say that, in an imperfect world, the facts may sometimes be inaccurate about the truths they are intended to manifest. In such cases it may be our duty to correct them.

One Response »

 

Racinated Creativity Thursday, May 24 2007

The Pit is a deracinated society. Anyone living in or near it should have a handy stock of antidotes:

Miss Gladys contributed:

Here is my Pit-antidote and it never fails to work. Baking!! I have a small collection of very up-to-date recipes, although any will do to be honest! I put my rather Quirrie-esque pinnie on, take out my scales (with Imperial weights, none of these rather odd metric measures) and away I go. My kitchen activities are often accompanied by up-to-date music, and sometimes my rather tubby kitchen cat will sit and watch me.

At the end of half an hour or more (depending on the cake) I am thoroughly racinated and have a lovely cake to eat with a perfect cup of tea. What could be more perfect?

Miss Iris added:

Just guess what I got through the Iron Curtain last week: a book of Trentish embroidery patterns! It’s beautiful, with colour plates and detailed instructions. Now I’m working hard to finish my other pieces so I can start on one or two from my new book.

Miss B sighed:

Trentish embroidery patterns you say? How lovely they must be! I have a collection of knitting patterns from Quirinelle that I take out and admire from time to time, but I fear I am too clumsy to make anything of.

Miss Gladys, I agree with you that baking is wonderfully racinating. Cake is as far beyond this clumsy brunette as are delicate Trentish embroidery and Quirinelle knitting however.

Miss Iris insisted:

Ah, Miss B. - you must not think that you are too clumsy to make anything. It is very naughty of you! Every pette can create something, whether she is skilled in a particular domestic art such as knitting, gardening or baking or in more general things. And you have ‘made’ me feel most welcome, so perhaps your skill in creating is in creating a welcoming environment. That is every bit as important as doing fine work with one’s hands, and possibly more suited to a dashing brunette. What a thing it is to create a civilised atmosphere! I salute you.

I am firmly of the opinion that a lot of the problems with bongos are caused by the fact that they do not create, they only consume. Because they do not create, they see no value in permanence and beauty and effort, and praise only the instant and novel. In a sort of vicious circle, because they have been taught impatience and dissatisfaction, they then refuse to spend time on making things of value! They simply purchase an endless succession of cheap, ugly “novelties”, disposing of the things that had caught their eyes (but not their minds or hearts) a moment earlier. It is foolish, rootless and wasteful.

This is a subject I am passionate about. Every egg a pette cracks, every stitch she makes, every flower she places in a vase is of utmost importance. Better that a maid should produce a line of wonky stitching or the world’s worst scones (produced, nonetheless, with time and love) than that she should become a rank-and-file consumer. 

Miss B agreed:

Miss Iris, if all I ever did in this world was make you welcome, I would feel content. Such a wise blonde as you are ought to be made feel how welcome are her words, as well as her lovely self, wheresoever she chooses to favor the brunettes with them.

I am most grateful for your salute to my humble part in creating the civilized atmosphere which prevails here. It is perfect for civilized discussion with the lightest spice of - I do not want to say dissent, or disagreement, because never would I dissent or disagree with a blonde. Perhaps I shall say the spice of differing perspective.

It is true that the vast majority of bongos spend their sad lives as consumers of the things of which in a sane society they would have a share in the production. However, if all bongos were so, Telluria might look forward to a much swifter return to sanity. The images and noises of the Pit do not arise of themselves. Intelligent and educated bongos are paid quite a lot of money to produce the trash that assaults our precious sensibilities whenever we must venture into the Pit. Bongos of the most powerful class choose to create art of destruction and sickness, and choose to broadcast it to the great world.

As you say, “Every egg a pette cracks, every stitch she makes, every flower she places in a vase is of utmost importance.” It is so that the forces of light will triumph over the forces of darkness - but not only because of the stitches made, eggs cracked, and flowers placed to beautify the Hestia, but also because of the ugliness not made, the chaos not succumbed to. When we use our Dea-given powers in the service of light we do not use them in the service of darkness. We choose to create beauty and order and light and love.

And as I write, I am eating wonderful lemon bread you inspired me to make! I wish I could share it with all who read these (overly serious!) words.

No Responses »

 

The Origin of War Thursday, May 17 2007

In the beginning there was no war, for all things were one in Dea, and conflict could not arise. The descent into manifestation is inevitably, in one sense, a descent into war: that is, the primordial Unity of unmanifest Wholeness is broken, and conflict enters into the now-manifest cosmos.

Nonetheless, it is true to say that physical war was unknown until a very late stage in human history. War between maid and maid was quite alien to the vast majority of “matriarchal” human civilisations, as it is in Aristasia. In the first Golden Age, war raged continually, but it was waged directly against the forces of darkness on the psychic and spiritual levels. This is the authentic archetype of war — the Vikhail, or true Holy War; and from this all the glory and nobility later associated with physical battle derives. It is still fought by every contemplative and mystic.

As time wore on and the descent into matter continued, the Enemy began to take on physical or quasi-physical forms. So also did the forces of good. It is from this period, many thousands of years ago, that the “mythological” creatures — dragons, centaurs, unicorns, etc. — found in legends throughout the world, have their origin. Later still, the forces of evil began to incarnate themselves in human civilisations — in the decadent “matriarchal” and proto-patriarchal states. It is in this period the Holy War descends fully to the physical level and maid first fights with maid. Finally, in the Kali yuga or Age of Iron, physical war becomes a condition of life. Kali yuga is known as the “age of quarrels” or conflicts. It is also the age when masculine images of Deity first arise and later become dominant over feminine ones.

Increasingly, all remnants of the true Holy War are lost, and war becomes merely a manifestation of the chaos and discord of the Age of Iron. This continual conflict is the inverse parody of the fact that the true soul is constantly at war with the discordant forces within her until she wins through to the primordial peace of Union with God.

From The Symbolism of Archery

One Response »

 

Ordinators and Hallucinogens Sunday, May 13 2007

Miss Sushuri Madonna wrote:

I was privileged to have a fascinating discussion last evening with Miss Francesca, who is not an Aristasian but is well versed in The Feminine Universe and knows far more about Aristasia than most Outlanders.

This lady raised the issue of ordinators and of Miss Alice Lucy Trent’s contention (in Universe) that they are a form of technics that would have come about in a continuing-rajasic world. In other words that technical advance and cultural decay are not related - their coincidence in Telluria is an historical accident.

Against this (and very much in the Aristasian tradition of “testing the hypothesis” or “putting the dark view on the table” - rather than the patriarchal spirit of attacking or scoring points) she suggested that while ordinator hardware may be neutral, software, including such fundamental conceptual software as the Graphic User Interface now common to all main ordinator systems, is designed by extreme type-3s and that the GUI itself was designed by people using large amounts of hallucinogens (specifically LSD) in the process.

I find this fascinating. Modern ordinators - although Virtual Reality is in its Infancy - are based on various metaphors which translate the extreme-abstract into the visible, tangible and easily-nameable, in order to make them usable by non-mathematicians.

The GUI itself, although it now seems familiar and obvious (you are using it right now), represented an amazing leap in consciousness. Just watch an older person, unfamiliar with ordinators, struggle to come to grips with it and you will be reminded what a radical conceptual leap was entailed.

So, considering that it was designed by post-Eclipse Western Tellurians, it does not surprise one unduly that hallucinogens were used to free the mind from its normal constraints and cart-tracks and think in terms completely new.

The question is, since the use of LSD was so closely bound up with the development of the Eclipse (much of the deformism, love of chaos, attraction to the outrageous and absurd that makes up much of bongo advertising, and “media-culture” can be called post-LSD culture). Are ordinators fundamentally deracinated?

I really don’t know the answer, so I have popped it up for your consideration.

One point that immediately occurred to me is that I have heard that Japanese innovators use Zen techniques to clear their minds of preconceptions and “think anew” in ways demanded by the new technics. Of course Zen (largely misunderstood in what might be called “LSD terms”) was very popular among precisely the sort of people who were designing graphic user interfaces in the 1970s. Could this be an area where legitimate and illegitimate “newness” meet?

I put forward the question for wiser heads to chew on, if you will forgive the mixed metaphor.

Miss Jannie added:

Not that I think I am the wise head with regard to this subject, which I also find highly interesting.

I only want to direct your attention to an on-line excerpt from John Markoff’s What the Dormouse Said, where the idea is presented in detail that the break through in the development not only of GUI, but also of the whole idea of ‘personal computers’ as such, is a result of the antiauthoritarian counter culture of the 60s in general and Doug Engelbart’s presentation on December 9 1968 at the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco in particular.

Lady Aquila replied:

One is reminded of an essay by the Traditionalist Whitall N. Perry entitled “Drug induced Mysticism: The Mescalin Hypothesis”. Unfortunately that is long out of print and selling for outlandish sums.

What is of interest is that Aristasians became involved with ordinators from a very early stage - at the very beginning, if not before the true beginning, of the “personal computer revolution”, and not only as users but as developers of “games” and limited “virtual worlds”.

Some of the very first Aristasians or proto-Aristasians seem to have had mildly Luddite tendencies and a distrust of technics, perhaps because of a strong Arcadian group. Some even considered Kadoria and Quirinelle to be somewhat dubiously “modernist”!

However, not only technics in general, but in particular the idea of spatial metaphors and building spaceless “places”, seemed to come very naturally to the generation after the Founding Mothers. Is there something deracinated in this, or something “back to fundamentals”? Perhaps it can be either, depending on how one approaches it. It was sometimes said that early Aristasians were in one sense the most deracinated people - the ones who were so utterly alienated from the post-Eclipse world that they had to begin anew.

I rather feel that Virtual Space is an interesting area that has opened up at the very end of this Tellurian Historical Cycle, that it would have opened whether Western culture had collapsed or not, and that in Telluria it can be approached from two opposite positions, represented by the drug-taking culture-wreckers of the furthest-possible West (California) and the traditional, spiritually-influenced Zen consciousness of the furthest-possible East (Japan).

Early Aristasians walked into this territory without drugs (unless you count some very inventive cocktails) and found it to be their own.

No Responses »

 

Friendship in Elektraspace Saturday, May 12 2007

The future of a Virtual Aristasia was being discussed the other day. We were speaking of the huge importance of friendship and sisterhood to Aristasians and the come-and-go nature of many of the friendships formed in Elektraspace.

In Aristasia Pura, the deepest friendships often begin in childhood and are forged through many common experiences and loyalties.

In Aristasia-in-Telluria friendships have been welded by living together and working together.

In Aristasia-in-Elektra friendship can seem a little lightweight, especially with the tendency of some new friends to be effusive one day (or month or year) and gone the next. If Elektra is going to be an important field for Aristasian life, we need to consider how to address this.

Traditionally, friendship develops slowly and runs deep in Aristasia. Building trust, love and bonding does not happen in a day and when truly forged is rarely broken. The term Friend is one that some Aristasians use with caution, for Friend is one of the highest titles she can bestow: it is not for mere acquaintances or passers-by.

And yet in Elektraspace, striking up friendships rather suddenly seems almost a necessary procedure, and the concomitant shallow-rootedness seems hard to avoid.

What is the answer? Lhi Raya quoted an old saying that Dea is easy to please but hard to satisfy (meaning that She is pleased with any small gift or expression of love, but that in the end only full devotion is truly sufficient). It is a powerful saying and one which lhi Raya suggests can be applied to Aristasian friendships in Elektra.

We too must be easy to please but hard to satisfy. Ready to be friends quickly; but realising also that the true bonds of deep friendship must be forged with time and effort and love; and that there is no substitute for this.

Playing together is an important aspect of this. The Japanese are very aware that spending recreational time together is one of the few ways of speeding up the long process of forming true friendship. That is one reason why I think the Wii, with its promise of easy recreational interaction across continents, may be important for the next phase of Aristasian development.

We also need to be working on projects together. Making a film in Virtualia is one thing that has been discussed. Sharing our fiction is something that is already beginning. 

Gradually we must build toward that critical mass whereat a true esprit de corps can develop in Elektra as it has in Physicalia.

In Telluria friendship may be an optional extra. In Aristasia it is the cement that keeps the temple erect: the gravitational pull that holds the stars within their courses.

No Responses »

 

The Hestia Friday, May 11 2007

“Hestia” means the home or household, properly “the place centred on the hearth-fire”, which is the embodiment of the sun in the microcosm of the house (as is the heart in the microcosm of the body).

The term “hestia” is often used in contradistinction to “agora”, which means the public world. Patriarchal societies tend to be agoracentric, believing that the public world is the focus of all importance, while feminine societies are more hestiacentric, seeing the household as the centre of life (we still refer in English to our homes as “where we live” - a very significant expression when one thinks about it).

The movement from hestia to agora has been an important part of late-patriarchy. Most early education, for example, once took place in the home, as did much work. People who owned shops often lived above or behind them and the shop was a “public” extension of the home. Many craftspeople worked from their homes, as did farmers.

Today most of these functions are transferred to “public” institutions like schools, factories, and supermarkets, while television brings the agora right into the centre of the home, forming a new “focus” (the word “focus” originally means “hearth-fire”).

Aristasians stress the importance of the hestia as the centre of life. For example, when modern people perceive something amiss with the world, their first thought tends to be to change the agora (this is termed “politics”). Aristasians point out that such efforts are largely futile, as one has no control over the agora, whereas one can have full control over one’s hestia, and this is where efforts should be directed. The idea of Aristasia-in-Telluria as a union of linked households (or hestias) is thus based in Aristasian philosophy.

No Responses »

 

Education in Aristasia Saturday, May 5 2007

At one time in the West of Aristasia Pura the system of the Estates was more predominant and each Estate had its own kind of education. The Magdala, or “makers”, went to something like grammar schools where they received a sound basic education. This was particularly the case when they were actually “sellers” - merchants and entrepreneurs rather than craftmaids. For the craftmaids, the Guilds undertook much of their education, which took many forms but centred on the “mysteries” of the craft which were something much more than mere “trade secrets” and had both an effective magical application (with relation to craft practices - for the making of things was and is less a purely physical matter than it is in Telluria) and also constituted a Spiritual Path.

The Raihira, or Noble Estate, received a raihiralan education, which, in early times consisted of learning many “accomplishments”, such as languages, singing, mathematics, drawing, poetry (every accomplished Raihira should be able to produce well-constructed verse) and so forth. In some cases there was a primary stress on the Vikhelic (martial) arts. While blondes and brunettes learned many of the same things, there were often certain subjects specific to blondes and others specific to brunettes.

Later, as the Estate system weakened and moved closer to the modern Western form (which is more akin to the vaguer system known in Telluria as “class”) the great Royal Schools were founded - akin to the Tellurian British Public School (not to be confused with the American public school, which is a very different thing). These were very traditional, concentrated much on Estrenne languages and ancient Raihira tradition. They were the ultimate foundation of the modern rayalin education, but they were still something quite different.

The Haiela, or Priestly and Intellectual Estate, was educated mainly in the Temples. The more secular Haiela went to Temple Schools. They learned most of what the Raihira learnt, and also many higher things. Some were highly skilled at philosophical enquiry. The highest, of course, pursued Realisation through the path of Pure Intellect, transcending earthly reason, yet even these received a thorough grounding in “speakable philosophy” - that wisdom which can be spoken and is therefore not the highest. Philosophy in the end is a preparatory stage. Etymologically it means love of Wisdom, for it is that which prepares us for Wisdom. It is not Wisdom Herself.

The training of the Haiela, at all levels, was extremely rigorous.

This, then is the Old System, described rather briefly. Of course it took different forms in different times and places, but this, essentially was its structure. In the West in more recent times, the system of the Estates became weakened, and the raihiralan education of the Royal Schools became a more general rayalin education (which properly means “education for a titled lady” but nowadays means just “education for the higher sort of person”). The Royal schools are now attended by the Raihira, much of the Haiela and the upper Magdala, while the lower Magdala (and some less accomplished Raihira) use the grammar schools.

The system of Estates is much less marked in the modern West, and many people only vaguely associate themselves with their Estate, having a much less specific “class”-based view of life.

In parts of the East, however, the Old System prevails, and even older systems are found in many places.

No Responses »